University calls police on students who protest outside Sussex House against university cuts

Last Wednesday 3 March at 12.30pm students occupied Sussex House for five hours in protest against proposed course cuts and job losses. Police in a convoy of vans were called onto campus to contain the occupation and the accompanying rally.

University management seek to reduce the budget for 2009/10 by £3m on a turnover of £160m, with additional savings of up to £5m in 2010/11. As a result, 115 staff across campus face redundancy. A statement from the occupation said: “The job cuts would eradicate the environmental science degree program, and significantly reduce the size of the English, history, and life science departments. The student advice service, the crèche, security services and catering staff also face savage cuts.”
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University students only have a 10-minute attention span

University students suffer from a mere ’10-minute attention span’, a recent study suggests. The research, undergone by Olympus Technologies, also shows 21 % of students are struggling to attend lectures and meet deadlines due to their need to support themselves with part time jobs.

A third of students link their short attention span to lack of sleep, due to being ‘overwhelmed’ and ‘unprepared’ by money issues and lectures. Suggesting a link between poor job prospects and poor performance, the survey goes on to state that  nearly half of all students fear “graduating with little to no job prospects, and high debts”.

One in ten students fear their university degrees will be a waste of money, and many feel that they are ill prepared for living a modern university life.
To combat these problems, an online guide to managing money published by Olympus suggests using online money-saving websites, joining the National Centre for Social Research in order to lessen student debt, researching credit cards and investing in technology, such as the Olympus brand voice recorder.

Recent research undertaken by Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist at the University of California in Santa Barbara, suggests that stress and mood are vital in their effects on attention span. Schooler also found that while alcohol decreases the frequency of mind-wandering, it also decreases the productivity in these mind-wanderings, causing an “empty space rather than a thinking space”.

In research taken out on a group of his students, Schooler discovered that their attention while reading, drifted roughly 6 times in an hour – agreeing with British students’ estimated ten minutes.

Yet Schooler’s research suggests that it is the time in which our minds wander that we are at our most productive.We may be more likely to make mistakes or fail to form concrete memories, but it is at these points that we are able to form complex ideas and digest the ‘bigger picture.’

Last Night (good) Things Happened

Last week, the SUDS Edinburgh festival entry piece was reprised to great aplomb.

Opening to the macabre sounds of four butchers sharpening their knives over the frigid body of a mostly naked young man, who awakes to baffled apologies from his would-be slaughterers, Last Night Things Happened follows the protagonist through a series of misadventures as he finds his way home.

His situation grows increasingly bizarre as he encounters which include an incredibly fat man composed of several cast members under a very large set of clothes, and the very literal Character Assassin.

The play consistently delivers memorable and entertaining scenes which enthrall through their self-perpetuating exploration of the strange. Each scene is both a cogent metaphor, and an addition to the overall narrative,  forming a coherent sequence that  pushes towards a final unified climax.

Another successful element of the play lies in its humour, which relies on genuine wit rather than  simply the discomfort evoked by  the uncanny. Laughter stormed the debating chamber as the patently doomed Average Angels expounded their philosophy of Versatility through Mediocrity, before marching off to face  the advancing Chinese army.

The cast did an admirable job, with many playing several characters in rapid succession. Of note was Lily Pollard’s role in a marriage that’s destined to last, man and wife having been fused together by lightning.

While  at times the play felt driven by a frantic tendency towards exposition, and  could be accused  of repetitiveness, SUDS proved that they deserved their excellent reception at Edinburgh, and that the play is deserving of future performances.

Casual comedians

Looking suitably casual, as their name would suggest, and lounging on leather sofas, I sit with James Hamilton and Dave Newman, two Sussex students turned comedians. We are waiting for the third member of Casual Violence, the comedy group I am meeting today in promotion for their upcoming sketch show The C**T Monolgues (16th & 17th October, Marlborough Theatre). Meeting as members of the university drama society SUDs the collective was put together as an opportunity to create comedy sketch shows where they could ‘be free to explore avenues they had never gone down before’ without the limitations imposed by a society format.

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Two legs good, eight legs bad

When renting a student house, it is important to realise that less people generally equals less cheese, less spare eyeliner and a lot less money… A new legislation however is about to be passed that could make this a disturbing reality for Sussex students.
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Smart drugs; a new panacea?

Modafinil. Exelon. Reminyl. These are all names which where virtually unheard of a year ago but are now appearing in newspaper and magazine articles with astounding regularity. They are smart drugs, taken to enhance memory, boost motivation, increase concentration, and even improve intelligence.

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New law attempts to clear out students

Students in Sussex could be seriously affected by a new law that would see undergraduates in groups of 3 or more unable to rent shared accommodation. The contentious government legislation was proposed earlier this year and is currently being considered by John Denham, the communities and local government secretary. The law would apply nationwide, specifically concerning areas in the country which have a dense student population.

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And for some good news … new online page for graduate job advice

The last few weeks have seen the introduction of a new online source for graduates curious about what direction to head in after their degree. This latest resource will come as useful and reassuring for graduates worried about the narrowing of choices when they leave university in a volatile climate with regards to employment and the economy.

Directgov, the ‘official government website for citizens,’ has added a new links page to its education and university section entitled ‘choices after you graduate,’ warning that “…if you want to prepare for life after graduation while keeping up with your studies, it pays to get organised – and to get the right advice.” This new source adds to an increasing production of information on the Internet, advising anxious students about their options post-Sussex.

‘If you want to prepare for life after graduation while keeping up with your studies it pays to get organised and to get the right advice.’

Evidence suggests that today’s students are becoming increasingly worried about what they are going to do after they finish university and how they are going to cope in a unpredictable employment sector. This concern has increased intensively as the economic troubles around the world worsen, and national governments are unable to ease the financial repercussions of the crisis. The media has also played a large part in increasing anxiety with daily reports claiming that the class of 2009 graduates will be hit the hardest by the recession.

Students have also been provided with various potential solutions to the problem. Carl Gilleard, from the Association of Graduate Recruiters, urges students to take up low-skilled jobs and voluntary work until the job market becomes buoyant once more. The Directgov website joins more optimistic sources of information for students who would like to think their degree qualifies them for a wider range of job opportunities regardless of the economic situation. The Directgov page has an extensive pool of information claiming to alleviate student concerns about the options for graduates, from Internet sources such as the Guardian online graduate education section, the more comprehensive Monster.co.uk, and not forgetting the advice individual universities can give, such as CDEC in Falmer House at Sussex.

The strength of this new online source is that it deals with many different paths out of university, from graduate job options to gap year ideas, and to further postgraduate education advice. It also covers information about TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and advice about starting your own business. Minister for the State for Higher Education, David Lammy said: “Going to university is still and always will be a good investment in your future career, this website will help by providing information on some of the options available to students after they graduate…We’re working with a range of organisations to make sure the information for graduates remains up-to-date and relevant, so students should log on for advice on what to do next.”

This new addition to the increasing amount of advice on offer for near-graduates will come as reassurance for students who have little idea of what to do when they leave university. It is also reassuring to know that in times of economic crisis, the government is aware of the need for comprehensive information for those who are heading off into an unpredictable job market for the first time. These sources remind students that there are still jobs available, especially in the public sector, and that there are still many options for graduates, even in difficult economic times. As always, the best approach is to use these resources to gather as much information as possible to be fully prepared for life after university.

End of Empire at Emmanuel College

Emmanuel college, Cambridge has dropped the name of ‘Empire’ given to this year’s May ball, following cries of protest from students at the university, who have deemed the controversial theme of colonialism ‘offensive’. Read more

Graduates urged to take low skilled jobs

Jobless graduates are being urged by employers to take on temporary or lower skilled work and wait for the right position rather than returning to education. With top up fees of £3000 extra to pay a year, graduates of 2009 will be leaving university the most indebted ever. Entering the job market during a recession has already hit many graduates hard and the future seems uncertain for successive university leavers. Read more

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